The stories of the 'Ostarbeiter' - civilians and POWs who were forced into slave labour during WWII - were almost totally neglected until the 1990's when historians and researches found survivors and their descendants and started to record their experiences.Dr Kristian Ireland - our speaker on Friday, 24 July - stumbledacross the story of his grandparents when a teacher at Primary School set the class a project: to record their family history.

Kristian was born and grew up in Australia but his Ukrainian/Soviet grandparents and mother had migrated to Australia from a displacement camp in Germany. Because his parents both had to work, Kristin spent a lot of time in the care of his grandparents and grew very close to them.Their experiences fascinated them - and his research continues.On his website - Ostarbeiter - a new chapter is called Memory, Suppression, and Silencing, which tells of the long suppression of this chapter of WWII history.Kristian cites Gelinada Grinchenko: “From the moment that researchers in Ukraine first began to examine the problem of historical memory, considerable attention was focused on the study of memory and the traumatic experiences of participants, victims, and eyewitnesses of World War II, especially those who, until recently, had been excluded from the ‘register’ of individuals customarily honoured during state commemorative events. One of the main population groups whose experience and memory had long remained on the periphery of official discourse comprised Soviet forced labourers in the Third Reich – the Ostarbeiter. The most numerous and one of the most discriminated-against groups of civilian workers.” (Gelinada Grinchenko, ‘The Ostarbeiter of Nazi Germany in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukrainian Historical Memory’, p. 401).In his talk, "Ostarbeiter - The story of my Grandparents". Kristian spoke about the incredible hardships, the forced labourers endured. His grandmother was only a young girl, when she was taken from her home and family. Many Ostarbeiter succumbed to the terrible conditions under which they had to work. On the lowest food rations, almost starved, they had to do 'hard labour' for long hours. Kristain's grandmother even had to participate in trench digging.Those who got ill - working in the heat and dust, under the hot sun and with next to no food, were threatened to be send to concentration camps.And yet, there is so much hope in his story, too. In the displacement camp where his grandparents met, the survivors formed musical and theatre groups, and formed classes to pass on knowledge. They forged friendships that sometimes endured for a life time.Music has been a strong influence in Kristian's life. He was introduced to it by his grandparents. "Music involves people and their stories", Kristian told his audience.